Chuck Norris at the Movies

What a different kind of night this turned out to be. To begin with, Chuck Norris had filmed several episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger at my cousin's place in Dallas (actually in Garland). Her place is the “'Bout Time Ranch”. The most notable episode, at least in my opinion, to be filmed there was the episode “Till Death Us Do Part” which was episode 5 of season 3 and aired on October 22, 1994. In this episode a wild, rich kid in a supercharged yellow Camaro causes a wreck on a bridge. The wreck created a rescue situation involving a car teetering on the guard rail with a mother in the front seat and a baby strapped into a car seat in the rear. Walker was able to get the young mother out, unbuckled and handed her the baby when the teetering car finally flipped over the guard rail and crashed upside down in a creek bed about 50 feet below. Walker was then in a coma for almost the entire episode with flashbacks to parts of his life with the various characters while Trivette and C.D. tracked down the yellow Camaro. So when they finally caught up with the rich kid, he was in the garage at my cousin's house (portrayed to be his dad's home) and came roaring out of the garage, crashed the yellow Camaro into a light pole and was arrested. So, if I ever had an opportunity to meet Chuck Norris, I had some common ground to talk about. And that was exactly what I did one evening.

Alice and I had decided to go see “The Notebook” with James Garner and Gena Rowlands. For my generation, these two were the real stars but they hardly got any billing what so ever. Its a really touching story of a man and a woman, both living in a nursing home-she being suffering from Alzheimer's. She had kept a notebook ledger or diary of her life with him. Some times she would come into the present (in her mind) and then relapse to her unknowing status. If you have had friends or relatives who suffered from Alzheimer's or dementia, you would appreciate how moving this story was. So there I was, in line buying tickets when Alice tugged at my left sleeve and whispered, “That looks like Chuck Norris over there.” I looked back over my shoulder and whispered back to Alice, “It is him.” I paid for my tickets and turned toward Chuck Norris with a beautiful lady on his arm. I watched his eyes dart up to the show/times listings and back to me several times. When We got close enough, he stuck out his hand and said, “Hi. I'm Chuck Norris.” I suppressed the urge to say something 'smart Aleck' and said, “I know but I just wanted to meet you. This is my wife, Alice”. Alice smiled and said, “Hello”. Chuck said, “And this is my wife, Gena”. We said hello all around and we all shook hands. I said something about always wanting to meet him and about my cousins ranch in Dallas. He said, “I live there you know.” After a really congenial chat we excused ourselves, apologized for “invading his space” and saying, “Thank you for the chat”, we parted. They were a very gracious couple which is very unusual these days from people who have attained “celebrity” status. So while the highlight of this evening so far had been meeting Chuck Norris, there is more.

It would be over an hour before the movie started. The movies were on the second floor of one of the nicer off-strip casinos. So, we road the escalator down to the casino floor. We spotted a carousel of four nickel machines that we liked to play. As we approached the machines, there was one man sitting there with his back to us but the machines beside him were empty. Alice went to his left and I to his right. We sat at right angles to his position so it was easy to look him in the eye when he spoke. He said hello to Alice and then to me said, “How is it going?” I said, “Just great. I just met Chuck Norris” still a bit overwhelmed by that experience. Now this man had one of those penetrating voices and you almost expected him to next say, “Reach out with your feelings, Luke”. Instead he remarked about how well he knew Chuck Norris, how Chuck might have been a little wild at one time but, “You know he's a born again Christian now.” He said his name but I'm not sure if it was Al or Hal. Then he began quoting scriptures, chapter and verse, about salvation. “Have you been saved?” Before I could answer, he said, “You're not sure or you would have answered yes.” He continued with, “You don't know I am do you? Well, one of these days I will have a revival out in Sam Boyd Stadium. When you hear about it. Come on out and I'll see that you both are saved.”

About this time the cocktail waitress came by with, “Drinks! Cocktails anyone?” I'm pretty sure he ordered a “Colorado Bulldog”. Then he continued to witness to us again. More scripture, more chapters and verses. This went on for another few minutes when a friend of his came up and asked about their going to get something to eat. At almost the same time the cocktail waitress came up with the Colorado Bulldog. His friend turned to me and said, “You can dress him up but you can't ........” and laughed. Hal or Al told him he was going to make sure we were saved. Then we shook hands and they headed for a restaurant. It was nearing movie start time by then so I walked around to Alice. She smiled, finished her play and we headed back upstairs to the movie.

So we watched “The Notebook”. When we finished I asked the ticket taker if he had seen Chuck Norris. It seems that Chuck and Gena had gone to a different movie and had preceded our departure. So as we approached the escalators, Alice and I reflected on the evening. We had met a TV and movie star. We had seen a really good movie. We had been witnessed to by an apparent evangelist while playing nickel video poker. What an evening! As one local celebrity poker player has said, “Only in Las Vegas, Baby.”